Ohio doctors start their own health insurance company

After becoming frustrated with skyrocketing insurance costs, a group of Central Ohio doctors have created the state’s only physician-owned health insurance company (Source: “What the doctor ordered,” Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 19, 2008).

Worthington-based Physicians’ Assurance Corp. was created three years ago and has plans with 48 businesses in the state and covers 593 people. The doctors who started the company said they target other doctors’ offices and small businesses.

The three physicians who founded the company say they reimburse doctors at the same rate as other insurance companies and have raised about $5.5 million in capital through the sale of $10,000 shares to other physicians. The state required insurance companies raise a minimum capital and surplus level of $2.5 million.